


Bristle

by katikat



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-14
Updated: 2018-04-14
Packaged: 2019-04-22 22:48:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14318751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katikat/pseuds/katikat
Summary: What if Frank Colton tackled Mac harder in that alley than he actually wanted? Set in ep 218. Or, yet another self-indulgent h/c story. Jack’s POV. (Unbeta'd)





	Bristle

**Author's Note:**

> Requested by geminidaydreamer over on Tumblr.

Jack’s still down, squirming in pain on the ground after that firecracker of a Colton girl tased him, when he hears the commotion down the alley, bodies hitting the pavement, grunts and yelling - and then, a disconcerting silence, followed by Riley’s hesitant, “Mac…?” and then a more insistent, panicked, “Mac? Mac, wake up!  _Mac_? Jack!  _Jack_!”

And even though Jack can still feel his muscles twitch and jerk with the aftershocks of the Taser’s discharge, that tone of voice, that profound dread, especially coming from Riley, he can’t  _not_ respond to. He rolls over, onto his side, and looks in her direction… and his eyes widen with shock.

Because there, fifteen, twenty feet down the alley, the Coltons are gathered around Riley, down on her knees, and around Mac - who’s lying on his back on the ground, head turned away from Jack, not moving, and from this angle, Jack can see blood matting his blond hair. A head wound, a serious enough head wound to render him  _unconscious_!

“Mac?” Jack whispers, scrambling to his feet, then his voice grows stronger as his own panic sets in when he realizes what he’s looking at, what’s happening and what it means, “Mac? Mac,  _answer_ me!”

Jack barrels down the alley and pushes the Coltons aside to get to the kid. He drops to his knees by Mac’s side and when he sees the paleness of Mac’s slack face, paleness bordering on ugly, unhealthy,  _terrible_ gray, his heart seizes in his chest.  _Jesus_ …

“What happened?” Jack snaps, glaring around, and the Coltons, usually so brash and headstrong, back away. “What the fuck happened here?  _Who_ did this?”

Frank, Mama Colton’s eldest, if Jack remembers correctly, swallows hard and hesitantly steps forward. “I-I tackled him. But I didn’t mean to… I didn’t want  _this_. I swear, Dalton. I didn’t want to hurt him, I just wanted to stop him.” His voice’s hoarse, anxious, full of remorse and his eyes are wide and panicked.

Jack clenches his jaw. He wants to-he wants to punch the guy, kick him in the balls! But that won’t help Mac and helping Mac’s the most important thing now.

He drops his eyes to the kid - and that’s when he sees it. Slowly, fearfully, he touches Mac’s ear. There’s  _blood_ seeping out of his it! No.  _Nonono._

Swallowing down panic, Jack looks up, at Riley who’s staring wide-eyed at his blood-smeared fingers, and says with deliberate calm, “Riley, call 9-1-1.” When she doesn’t move, transfixed by the sight of Mac’s blood on Jack’s fingertips, he reaches out to touch her arm very gently. “Riley, come on. Mac needs help. Call 9-1-1. Now.”

She jerks her head up, blinking at him, then she nods sharply and pulls out her cellphone, while Jack touches Mac’s throat with his clean hand, searching for a pulse. He pushes down his panic, forcing himself to stay calm, but it’s only after he finds a heartbeat, that his shoulders, almost painfully tight until that moment, relax.  _He’s alive, Mac’s alive._

There’s a screech then, tires wailing on pavement, and the Coltons’ truck takes off. The Coltons startle and turn, Jesse and Billy but not Frank, he’s still staring down at his unintended handiwork in shock.

“Beck’s running,” Jesse says numbly.

“I don’t fucking care,” Jack replies in a hard, cold voice.

And he doesn’t. He doesn’t care about Palmer rolled up in a carpet at his house, he doesn’t care about Beck and the secrets he stole, he doesn’t even care about Mama Colton, storming in their direction like the goddess of wrath herself. All he cares about is Mac and getting him the help he so very obviously needs.

“Hang on, buddy,” Jack pleads in a whisper. “Just… hang on.”

* * *

Mac’s bald as an egg - alright, bristly as a brush - when he leaves the hospital two weeks later, a big square of a pristine white gauze covering the back of his head where he cracked his skull in the fall and where the doctors had to open him up to relieve the pressure on his brain that the intracranial bleeding was causing.

Jack knows that term now.  _Intracranial bleeding._  He’s not one for big words but this one, this one he’ll remember as long as he lives. He’s heard it often enough this past fortnight. He looked it up on-line when they rushed Mac into surgery. He read up on it during the endless hours while the doctors were trying to save not just Mac’s life but that brilliant mind of his, too. Jack read up on all the risks, on everything that could go wrong with a diagnosis like that…

And all those gory details make him clench his hands hard around the handles of the wheelchair he’s pushing down the hospital corridor towards the main exit. He looks down at Mac’s head - yup, that noggin of his surely resembles a bristly brush now, no more jokes about Professor X (Jack can’t bring himself to regret that) - and his heart slams hard against his ribcage once, twice when the words “brain damage” swim through his mind. Luckily, they avoided that. God must’ve been smiling at Mac - at  _them_ \- that day.

“Ready to go home, oh, Bristly One?” Jack asks and the lightness in his voice hides his deep, profound relief.

Mac mock glares at him over his shoulder. “Aren’t you fed up with those stupid nicknames by now?” he complains, exasperated.

Jack grins down at him. “No, Stubble. Not at all.” And he really isn’t. If he can make fun of the kid, it means Mac’s alright, safe and healthy - or he will be again, given a little more time. And that’s the most important thing.

Sighing, Mac turns back around, facing forward again, and lifts his hand to run his fingers over his head tentatively. The hair’s slowly growing back but just like his cracked skull will take time to heal properly, his mop won’t be back to its previous glory for some time yet. “It really is…  _bristly_ , isn’t it?” Mac comments a little sadly.

Laughing, Jack bends down and whispers mischievously into the kid’s ear, “Maybe it’ll grow back frizzy, Curly Sue.”

Groaning, Mac hides his face in his hand, and Jack laughs even harder. And then they’re out, through the main door - and they stop abruptly because right there, standing in the No Parking zone, is the Coltons’ new truck - Jack heard their old one blew up, his heart really  _bled_ for them - and the family of bounty hunters is gathered in front of it. All of them.

As if sensing the tightness of Jack’s clenched jaw without even looking up and around, Mac whispers, “It’s okay, Jack. Calm down.”

Jack almost growls because it’s easy for the kid to say.  _He_ didn’t see himself lying on the ground there, bleeding from his fucking ear, thank you very much. No,  _Mac_ woke up in the hospital a day later, not knowing where he was or how he got there, and he slept through the next several days.  _He_ didn’t see himself, he didn’t-he…

Taking a deep breath, Jack lets it out slowly, very slowly, in an attempt to calm down. Because Mama Colton pushed away from their track and started walking towards them with Frank in tow. Fisticuffs in front of the hospital entrance would be in bad taste, no matter how much Jack wants to punch the guy. Sure, he knows that Frank didn’t really mean to hurt Mac, he  _knows_ that, but that doesn’t change Jack’s protective anger. That guy almost  _broke_ Mac and Jack’s instincts are yelling at him to turn him into minced meat!

“Dalton, MacGyver,” Mama Colton greets them with a nod when she stops in front of them.

“Mama Colton,” Mac replies with a smile while Jack just glares. This is as civil as he can manage at the moment, so sue him!

“My Frank here,” Mama Colton states, pointing at her eldest, “has something to say to you, MacGyver.”

Mac looks up at Frank curiously. The man stares straight at Mac, not hiding or shirking his responsibility for what happened. “I never meant for  _any_ of this to happen. All I wanted was to get my guy and I didn’t think. And for that, I’m very sorry, MacGyver.”

Yeah, well, the guy does make it hard to stay mad at him, Jack thinks morosely.

“Frank,” Mac says kindly, “it was an accident, I know that. But thank you.” And with that he reaches out his hand.

Frank smiles, his relief evident, and shakes Mac’s hand.

Then Mama Colton steps in. “You’ll be glad to hear that we got Beck. My kids worked hand in hand with that boss lady of yours and we got the bastard. Your boss got who she was after and we got paid handsomely - minus your hospital fees, of course.” She shoots her son a look; Frank cringes a little. “We Coltons always pay our debts.”

Mac opens his mouth - probably to refuse their generosity - but Jack jumps in, smiling too sweetly, “And we appreciate it. Thank you.”  _It’s the least you could do_ , remains unsaid.

Mama Colton looks at him sharply, probably sensing the remnants of animosity in his voice, and Jack stares back, unflinchingly. But the tension between them lasts only a second because they understand each other perfectly: they both protect their own.

“Jack…” Mac mumbles a quiet warning but Jack reaches down and pats him on the shoulder reassuringly. Nothing to worry about there.

Nodding, Mama Colton turns to go. “I like you two, boys. But excuse me for saying I hope we won’t see each again other any time soon. Whenever our paths cross, we get our money, sure. But bad shit happens, too, always. I would rather avoid that.”

“Ditto!” Jack calls after her grumpily.

When the Coltons hop into their truck and roar off, Mac stares after them with a smile and says, “I like them.”

Turning the wheelchair towards the parking lot, Jack snorts, “It’s the blow to the head, hoss, it’s making you delusional. Don’t worry, it’ll pass.”

The sound of Mac’s laugh makes Jack smile.


End file.
